Unholy Magic

Chess, Chess, Chess. How in the world are you able to get so deep into those horrible messes? And will you ever come clean with the (few) people you care about? Will you ever get clean, period?

Chess was both more broken, and even stronger in this book. Her drug-use normally should have killed her, I'm sure of it. With both Terrible and Lex feeding her addictions, it's amazing she is still alive, and somewhat functioning to boot.

I love, love, love Chess! But at the same time, I would really like to have a serious talk with her, get her into re-hab, and help her out a bit. That girl is in serious need of a real girlfriend. Someone she can trust, and who will always be there to help her out. It's amazing that she is so utterly lost, her work is to help other lost people, and she's actually quite successful as a churchwitch.

I also truly love Terrible! I wonder about a lot of things concerning him, though. What was it he was burning the skin on his back for in book 1? Is he an angel? Angry now that nobody beleives in angels anymore? Like, what does he really do when he has time off from work? Will he ever let Chess explain herself?

And the magic wielded in this book was crazy! I got goose-bumps when Chess went into dangerous situations, and I had to look around to see if there were any ghosts around my house at times as well.

Very happy that I have the next book all ready to be devoured on my kindle! Off I go :) ( )

Just what I was afraid of! Read Abigail's review at All Things Urban Fantasy. I really want to get to Chess and Terrible's HEA, but I don't think I can make it through this book.

So freaking painful to read, but I couldn't put it down. Chess is such a mess, Terrible breaks my heart, and I can't wait for book three. I don't think I'd even recognize Chess without her addictions and her ghosts, but part of me still hopes she'll get clean and get help. ( )

Update 7/19/12: Stacia Kane is extremely cool:
http://www.staciakane.net/2012/07/11/avengingwtfery/
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This book hurts. Well, if that lovey dovey stuff matters to you it might. It's not romance at all, it's painful and raw and sick but I cried. I didn't even know I was crying until my lip felt wet.

I also couldn't put it down. I started trying to read around eleven but the kids kept interrupting until after twelve when I was already exhausted. By two I was having trouble keeping my eyes open but something was about to happen with Terrible so I had to keep going. I got some caffeine and read further. Soon I had to pee. I sat with my legs crossed until five and when I couldn't hold it any longer. By then I was almost done with the book even though I had reread almost every scene with the two of them. I finally finished at 6 AM when I had to get up at 11AM. That's how good this book was.

Why? I'm not entirely sure. The premise is ridiculous. Even if you bought the idea of the cataclysmic event, the author knows little about religion and systems of belief and how they endure and adapt to changing times; changes like modern tragedies, technological inventions, astronomical developments (round earth, space travel), and those that refuse to change despite overwhelming evidence (Flat Earth Society, Intelligent Design). It would take a lot longer for this new absurd religion to take hold and much longer for the others to lose complete faith. Elders coming back from the dead to murder most of your family would only convince those who worship elders that they weren't doing a good enough job. And how would they have found the city of the dead and not be killed? And if the dead were so evil why are people not afraid of the city of the dead? It's really quite confusing.

But ignore that foundation that was set in the first book. Ignore the occasional poorly constructed or pronoun laden sentence that has to be reread to be understood. Ignore it because most of the writing is good enough that I usually didn't notice it and I could almost always picture the scene like it was a movie in my head. I could see every move Terrible made; every flippant expression on Lex's face, the battles and the ghosts and the blood. The drug withdrawal scene was so well done I started to become nauseated. I ached for that person but I liked that the person was having consequences of being an addict and hope that this continues to be an increasing theme. I like that we never really see Chess's love interests use (except for a life saving emergency in the first book) even when she is with them when she pops a few pills.

The plot moves along at a good clip and the mysteries are just that and it isn't until near the big finale that you finally figure it all out.

But what I love best are the people. These are the best characters I think I have ever read in Urban Fantasy. They are damaged people and they do bad things but I don't believe the author glorifies them. I think she just presents them as they are and forces the reader to read between the lines. I think this was true in the first book too. Chess has to have her fix and she is always worried about how she is going to cope with what she's taken or whether/what she needs to get through. She admits she's an addict but her life is so low to her that she doesn't care. In this book, she talks several times about how much easier it would be to just let herself be killed because of all the darkness; that it was right that no one respects her or trusts her because she is not worthy of it. It's heart wrenching.

Bump and Slobag could be just caricatures but Kane gives them just enough more that they feel real to me.

Lex is a bit of an enigma and I hate that Kane keeps having him doing things that make me like him although the not-black-and-white aspect is something I really admire. He's no worse than the others and in some ways better than most because he never lies about what he does. He also doesn't throw his power around or boast about it all the time but he has plenty of faults. I keep waiting for him to hurt Chess but instead he keeps helping her and is there when she needs him.

Terrible though is one of the best main characters I have read about in a long time. He is complex and I get the impression there is so much more under the surface, much more than the hidden layers we've already been shown. I love that he's ugly. I love his slang and uneducated speech patterns. I love that he's smarter than he knows. I love that he actually does terrible things and that bothers Chess especially when she sees them and he doesn't want her to see him like that. I love that he has deep feelings that are sometimes obvious to me but are not at all clear to the other characters. I love that he's this kind of tacky pseudo-50's James Dean/Grease cross with a pompadour (ewwww) and drives a muscle car. I love that somehow I know that Terrible doesn't like that Chess does drugs because he worries about her even though he's never said anything, implied or done anything except to say something along the lines of he'll want her no matter what to says so. Somehow by omission, Kane has let me figure this out. I know some of these sound like stereotypes but Kane makes it fresh and new. I am in love with Terrible which is quite a kudo to Kane given what a passifist and anti-drug person I am. She's that good.

4 stars plus one more for making me read so fast and grabbing my heart like that.
( )

So, I originally gave this series a shot because Michelle raved about it, AND it was within my rule of
And I liked the first one a lot, but it seemed a little gimmicky, so I wasn't sure I would continue. Except that the second book was cheap. And Stacia Kane popped up on the blogosphere as a bad-ass. I love supporting bad-asses.

And then this book became my imperfect crack, my guilty pleasure.

I have issues with this book, but they're not enough to make me give up on the series (though I'll have to wait for books 4 to go on sale, because of my moral need to not spend more than 6$/ebook).

Chess is still our main character, our churchwitch. The world is still dark and ugly and gritty. And I admittedly have a huge hard-on for dark and gritty.

She's a fundamentally flawed character, still almost too stereotypically fundamentally flawed, but I'm giving her a pass. She makes really, really stupid mistakes, but mistakes that make sense, and are a bit painful to people like me who have made epically stupid mistakes.

The world building is good, but not great. There is still a lot of the world to be filled in, a lot to be explained. I like that Kane has not gotten overly finicky and exposition-y about it, but a wee bit more explanation would be great (Yeah, ghost-apocalypse, yeah, Church, but, more please?).

The prose is solid and consistent, I think it's much better than the first book, which shows nice growth on the part of the author. I still like the use of Downside-slang with the characters that speak, while the more privileged and educated characters speak much more "correctly" (at least what we privileged Americans would expect).

I still want meaningful female characters that are not the main character (so far, except for Junkie Chess, we just have bitches, goody-bitches and whores).

Anyway, on to the story. It's another mystery. Another classic detective story, with an A and B plot that you know are somehow going to come together, it's just a matter of time. Chess is still playing the field between two opposing drug lords, and has to work between them to get her B plot to come out.

The actual B (as I refer to the non-officially-sanctioned-by-the-Church plot) plot is actually horrible. And kudos to Kane for making a truly horrific and awful scene involving that one. I mean, really. Ew. And Ugh. Everything wraps up nice and episodic, with just a few trailing ends to keep us going into the next book.

It reminds me a lot of the early Dresden books (only with a whole lot more graphic violence, sex and drug use), where Harry could solve some mystery stuff and go along his merry way, before there were huge overwhelming power-story arcs.

I got much more into this story, it was like watching an epic battle or car accident, only while Chess is an interesting main character, I she's not a good character, I can't root for her, so I'm watching this battle and I don't know that I want anyone to win. Except Terrible and damn you Kane for leaving that hanging, because now I have to dive straight on into the next book... you'd better be answering some questions.

High literature with lots of thinky premise? Not really, though if pushed I could tease out some good discussion points. This is popcorn for me. Pure and unadulterated (except for the extra butter) popcorn.

( )

So, I originally gave this series a shot because Michelle raved about it, AND it was within my rule of
And I liked the first one a lot, but it seemed a little gimmicky, so I wasn't sure I would continue. Except that the second book was cheap. And Stacia Kane popped up on the blogosphere as a bad-ass. I love supporting bad-asses.

And then this book became my imperfect crack, my guilty pleasure.

I have issues with this book, but they're not enough to make me give up on the series (though I'll have to wait for books 4 to go on sale, because of my moral need to not spend more than 6$/ebook).

Chess is still our main character, our churchwitch. The world is still dark and ugly and gritty. And I admittedly have a huge hard-on for dark and gritty.

She's a fundamentally flawed character, still almost too stereotypically fundamentally flawed, but I'm giving her a pass. She makes really, really stupid mistakes, but mistakes that make sense, and are a bit painful to people like me who have made epically stupid mistakes.

The world building is good, but not great. There is still a lot of the world to be filled in, a lot to be explained. I like that Kane has not gotten overly finicky and exposition-y about it, but a wee bit more explanation would be great (Yeah, ghost-apocalypse, yeah, Church, but, more please?).

The prose is solid and consistent, I think it's much better than the first book, which shows nice growth on the part of the author. I still like the use of Downside-slang with the characters that speak, while the more privileged and educated characters speak much more "correctly" (at least what we privileged Americans would expect).

I still want meaningful female characters that are not the main character (so far, except for Junkie Chess, we just have bitches, goody-bitches and whores).

Anyway, on to the story. It's another mystery. Another classic detective story, with an A and B plot that you know are somehow going to come together, it's just a matter of time. Chess is still playing the field between two opposing drug lords, and has to work between them to get her B plot to come out.

The actual B (as I refer to the non-officially-sanctioned-by-the-Church plot) plot is actually horrible. And kudos to Kane for making a truly horrific and awful scene involving that one. I mean, really. Ew. And Ugh. Everything wraps up nice and episodic, with just a few trailing ends to keep us going into the next book.

It reminds me a lot of the early Dresden books (only with a whole lot more graphic violence, sex and drug use), where Harry could solve some mystery stuff and go along his merry way, before there were huge overwhelming power-story arcs.

I got much more into this story, it was like watching an epic battle or car accident, only while Chess is an interesting main character, I she's not a good character, I can't root for her, so I'm watching this battle and I don't know that I want anyone to win. Except Terrible and damn you Kane for leaving that hanging, because now I have to dive straight on into the next book... you'd better be answering some questions.

High literature with lots of thinky premise? Not really, though if pushed I could tease out some good discussion points. This is popcorn for me. Pure and unadulterated (except for the extra butter) popcorn.

( )